(Refer also to box 5.2 Basic urban componentry)
1 Minimize residential vehicle access points entering
onto traffic collector roads. Assign vehicle crossings
to home access streets. Keep width of non-
collector streets to a slow-down-traffic minimum –
as little as 5 m (16 ft) with no parking, 6 m (20 ft) with
one-sided parking.
2 Use chicanes, surface variety, raised and textured
street patches, and kinked and constricted carriage-
way alignments to induce traffic calming for non-
collector streets.
3 Design subdivisions with a range of lot sizes to
accommodate a mix of house sizes; with provision
for up to 20 per cent ‘affordable’ (starter) houses.
Encourage the erection of live-alone annex
constructions.
4 Use ‘cluster designs’ for urban focus and sociability.
Aim to achieve small-town nodality for suburbs,
avoiding monocultures. Position kitchen or living-
room windows to maintain ‘eyes on the street’.
5 Plant summer shade trees in the street berm. Use
grass and shrubbed swales for storm-water control,
and shallow ponds for storm-water retention and
sediment settlement. Retain existing trees and
other natural features, and create green swathes and
pockets.
6 Accommodate building to the boundary (zero
lot-line) positioning, common-wall provisioning,
designate no-window and high-window walls and
staggered site envelope designs as aids to the for-
mation of some private outdoor living space within
a plot curtilage. Avoid the useless front lawn: estab-
lish front-yards to a maximum 3 m (10 ft) to improve
the rear-yard space (notably on the sunless side of
streets).
7 Recess garages into one side, and aligned with the
front façade, of each house. Best of all, provide rear-
lane access to car parking, an attractive garaging
option.
8 Design sites, considered one in relation to another,
for and against sun, wind and noise penetration.
Shape lots as often as possible in a manner which
allows for an east–west axis to each house.
9 Provide chunky residential lots mindful of thepreference for width (maximum 20 m–66 ft) rather
than an emphasis on plot depth: but down to 10 m
(33 ft) for smaller dwelling units, and as low as 6 m
(20 ft) for some terraced housing.
10 Incorporate the use of occasional battle-axe rear
plots but with a preferred maximum of four users
sharing an accessway.
11 Adopt safe-at-night designs with entrapment-
avoidance pathways and effective street lighting.
Seek to attain ‘permeability’ with ‘defensibility’.
12 Design ‘landscaping to the curb’ provisions; particu-
larly for footpath-free streets. Curved footpaths
flanking straight carriageways add character and
accommodate parking inserts.
13 Provide for the common trenching of telephone,
gas, water and electricity utilities; use flexible
ducting. Handle storm water on a ‘daylighting’ basis
and via permeable surfaces.
14 Conserve and incorporate the already existing land-
scape features, and flora, into the suburban scene.
Maximize the planting of locally suitable trees and
shrubs.
15 Harmonize design-materials-landscaping in either a
regulatory code or guidelines.
16 Engage a variety of legally effective covenant
restraint provisions: specifying building materials,
external cladding texture and coloration, roofing
materials and colour, window and door trim mate-
rial and colour; and also design and profile parame-
ters along with coverage, height, and siting and
street set-back provisions, including a frontyard
fencing prohibition, specification of the height and
style of acceptable fencing; landscaping including
mature tree preservation, large tree planting,
native species emphasis and general landscaping
guidelines.
17 Use cross leasing, strata tenure, lease holding and
group titles (for community amenities) imaginatively:
mindful of the social dangers of ‘exclusionary’
provisioning.
18 Allow designed-in home-work and home-office
arrangements with separate front or side entrances.
Accommodate the stand-alone ‘granny flat’ and the
over-the-top ‘carriage house’ for elderly relatives or
as rental or office-studio use.